As you can see, until Week 12 it has basically been feast or famine with at least four wins or losses for eight straight weeks.

If I could only channel those good weeks I would have a chance at winning this thing. But the odds of that have to be like one in a million…

If my odds are good enough for Lloyd Christmas, they’re good enough for me. So onward with my Week 13 picks.

STL +7.5 (vs SF)
The Rams took the 49ers to OT in San Francisco and since then, the 49ers have been riddled with a QB controversy. St. Louis’ offense looked stellar on the road last week and that extra 0.5 in the spread makes me love this pick.

ARI +4.5 (@ NYJ)
The Jets are a total mess of a team in every way. Of course, Arizona is on a 7-game losing streak so I shouldn’t be celebrating them either. I am a big fan of Ryan Lindley’s, though, and I’m looking for him to protect the ball this week to keep this game tight enough for AZ to win.

BUF -6 (vs JAX)
Once again I’m picking against a horrible team rather than for a great one. I can attest to the fact that it’s f*%king cold in the northeast right now and I see that having a negative effect on the resurgent Chad Henne (too early to call?) and the MJD-less Jags.

MIA +9 (vs NE)
The Pats ruined my survivor pool in Week 2 with a home loss the the aforementioned Cardinals. I see this as another one of those “should-be-a-cake-walk” games that NE will be caught on its heels for. Miami has kept all but two games within nine points this year and I like them to do that against New England.

HOU -6 (@ TEN)
The two teams to beat the Dolphins by more than nine points this year? The Texans and the Titans. One of these teams is very good, the other is not. I have no other explanation or justification for this pick…whatever, go Houston!

As it stands, the leader of the SuperContest is 40-19-1 so I’m 7.5 games behind. Is it too much ground to make up? Are the worst of my weeks behind me?

Well if Carl Spackler is right…

…then I think I’ll keep playing.

Justin Elliott is a co-founder of Hire Me Grantland.

Send in your picks or tweet them @HireMeGrantland and see how you stack up against the football Nostradamus-es of the world.

Leave a Reply

Other News

Matt and Neal talk NBA free agency in the return of the pod! Listen to their recap of the Eastern conference here. Then check out their recap of the Western conference, plus a few random predictions here.

Justin, Neal and Matt put the Super Bowl in context: How good are the Ravens compared to other SB winners? Is Joe Flacco a top-5 quarterback? What is the next step with PED testing in the NFL?

Once again, sports fans were treated to a memorable Super Bowl. The Ravens were thinking blowout until the blackout — did that affect their momentum? — and then the 49ers came all the way back to ultimately fall just short.

Meanwhile, reverberations of Ray Lewis’ alleged use of PED’s forced sports fans to consider their values — does PED use really matter to us?

And Joe Flacco emerged from a historic playoff run as an unquestioned franchise quarterback (what?).

Without further ado: Matt and Justin’s discussion of the NFL playoff picture leading into the end of the regular season, with special guest Neal Suidan.

All you have to do is click here and click “Listen” or “Download” once you get to our hosting site.

Our first post is about the NFC Playoff picture leading into last week’s games. Listen to how wrong we were about San Francisco after last night’s result, Neal’s analysis of his hometown Bears (and Bulls), Matt’s pipe-dream of a Redskins playoff run and more.

Our next pod is about the AFC, but includes a bonus round of which coaches should get fired (and Matt’s prediction of Chip Kelly to Carolina that he has been patting himself on the back for ever since), and Neal trying to Beautiful Mind his way through the muddy AFC North playoff picture. Justin’s breakdown of the Raiders, fortunately for you all, was omitted due to “microphone problems.”

Shortly, these episodes will be available on the iTunes store (Apple has to screen them first before they unleash our idiocy on the unwashed masses).

Watching RGIII as a rookie is like the first time you heard OK Computer, or saw Louis CK’s standup a few years ago, or watched Barack Obama in the 2004 Democratic Convention. “Holy shit!” you think. “Do people know about this yet?”

You form a special kind of relationship with an entertainer, athlete or politician after an experience like that — you realize: “Hey, this guy could be the real deal, and I think I just saw history.” Often, I find I become invested in people like that, rooting for history just to say in a few years, “I was there…”

RGIII to the rescue. He is, by many accounts, the most exciting player in the league. He draws friendly fans to FedEx Field. His value to a shrinking fan base is unspeakable. It’s hard to root against him, even if your team is playing against him.

Robert Griffin III has revitalized one of the most valuable franchises in the world. The value of hope is what Griffin brings to the table, in addition to all those other tangible assets.